Tag Archive for God’s presence

Natural Prayer

2013-10-06 Devotional with Hymn, Prayer No comments

For years I experienced a sense of uneasiness before God. I guess I felt I wasn’t totally pleasing to Him, so I avoided looking in His face. I wanted to live closer to Him, and even believed that it was possible, but I didn’t know how to make it happen. Consistency was always beyond my reach.

I tried self-discipline. My time was organized into tight compartments, and I drove myself to stick to the program. And in the area of temptation, after my frequent failures, I would work out mental techniques to help me gain control the next time it came up. But all I tried only increased my frustration.

Nowhere was self-discipline a greater failure than in my prayer life. Yes, I understood the importance of praying, but that only made me feel more guilty. It wasn’t just a matter of making time to pray. Once I started to pray, I couldn’t concentrate to save my life. The harder I tried to control my wandering mind, the more it escaped in 80 directions.

And I studied the Bible. I studied it a lot. I guess I hoped the secret to a truly satisfying life in God was in some hidden wisdom He would help me find.

However, He graciously showed me the opposite. The key to the life He offers us is not through strict self-discipline, even though discipline can be good; nor is it through some higher wisdom attainable only by the spiritual elite. All He asks us to do–all He has ever wanted us to do–is to simply trust Him, one moment at a time. As we trust Him, a relationship is formed, a friendship that allows Him to live and work inside us.

Furthermore, He does not ask us to reach out to some God who is high above and far away. God is a real being, and He is constantly, personally with us.

Nothing has made a bigger difference in my life than this simple realization. I walk in His presence. I live with Him face-to-face.

Realizing His constant presence makes the greatest change in my prayer life. Prayer is no longer a routine of struggling to contact Someone way out there somewhere. I don’t have to get into the right frame of mind to pray. Prayer is no longer a brief, isolated period of the day. It is wonderful to be able to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

We are never out of His presence, so prayer doesn’t have to start and stop. He is always there, so we can talk to Him freely, moment by moment, as to a good friend who is right next to us. When He blesses us–through one of those little daily blessings–we can thank and praise Him on the spot. When a concern arises, we can look in His face and know that He loves us. We can trust the need to Him. Every joy, every problem, every gift from Him can become the seed of a prayer, of a nearer, dearer relationship with Him.

And when we fail, we can ask His forgiveness right there and then, knowing His love for us makes Him anxious to heal and forget completely. If our repentance is immediate and sincere, not even our sins need separate us from Him.

As our needs don’t stop, prayer shouldn’t stop. We can experience a continual openness, a quickness to turn to Him in everything. It won’t happen automatically or overnight, but as we remember that He is there, and as we trust Him, our friendship grows. When it finally sinks in to you personally that He really is there with you, anxious to listen, anxious to guide and help you, prayer will become more natural and free. It will be a “want to,” not a “have to.”

Remember: always, always talk to Him as to a friend who is right there with you.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Ever Standing in Your Presence
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Being with God

2013-06-11 Devotional, Evangelistic No comments

My relationship with God and my entire life have been radically reshaped by the realization that He is a Living Being, and He is constantly, personally, immediately with me.

But if God is omnipresent—if He is always everywhere—what’s so special about His being with me? Isn’t He with all of us, always, inescapably?

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
(Psalm 139:7, NASB)

I am always with Him, but isn’t everyone, including the most hardened unbeliever? Why does He sometimes specify His presence, as if to limit it?

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
(Psalm 145:18, NASB)

Picture yourself in a crowded restaurant, sitting with one you love. Technically you are with everyone in the restaurant. But in a deeper sense, you are only with your friend. It’s not a matter of physical proximity. The person sitting immediately behind you at the next table might be physically closer to you. But you are with your loved one because you enjoy a mutual relationship of love and trust with them. You care deeply about every aspect of their life, their every concern, and they feel the same about you. You are leaning toward each other. Your ears, your eyes, your mind, and your heart are focused on one another, hungrily straining to hear and know and be with the other in the fullest sense possible.

That is the sense in which God is with His people.

I am continually with You;
You have taken hold of my right hand.
With Your counsel You will guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth…
Those who are far from You will perish…
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.
(Psalm 73:23-25, 27-28, NASB)

God is as near to you as you will allow Him to be. But it takes two to form a relationship.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8, NASB)

The Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. (2 Chronicles 15:2, NASB)

He is calling you to a closer personal relationship with Himself. How will you respond?

A Real Person

2013-06-09 Devotional with Hymn, Evangelistic 2 comments

I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
(Psalm 73:23-25, NIV)

The most moving, eye-opening, transforming point in my life came when I realized this one simple truth: God is a real Being. He is not a mythical figure, an impersonal force, or the creation of our minds. He is a real “person,” a living Being. I can interact with Him. In fact, He delights to interact with me.

What’s more, He loves me–He deeply loves me. He provides for me and works in my life. He patiently teaches me and changes me from the heart. He forgives me when I do wrong.

And He is with me. He is personally, constantly, intimately, actually right here with me, all the time.

For me, the real attraction of the Christian life is not the lifestyle, although I’ve found that it’s the best, wisest, and most natural. What’s compelling about being a Christian is Jesus Christ himself.

I find it so sad: when people hear the term “Christian,” they too often think of stuffy religion or perhaps a certain political persuasion or cultural flavor. They think of living by lots of rules. Or saddest of all, they think of people who sometimes seem self-righteous, narrow-minded, and condemning.

Being a Christian is none of those things. Believe me, it isn’t. Christianity is simply this: knowing Jesus Christ as a real person, face-to-face.

Christianity is the simplicity and warmth of a personal relationship. It is knowing the One who created you. It is knowing the One who loved you from the moment He conceived you, long before you were born. It is knowing the One who suffered and died to remove the evil from within you. It is trusting an intimate Friend who is always loving, always wise, and always with you.

Walking with Him, step-by-step, is making my life more wonderful than I ever dreamed life could be. I can talk to Him anytime throughout the day and know that He hears me and is pleased that I’m talking to Him. When I’m concerned, I can turn to Him, talk with Him, and lean on Him. When I’m happy, I can thank Him. When I’m wrong, I can ask forgiveness, knowing He gives it gladly and completely.

In myself, I’m no more perfect than anyone else. But because He is with me and in me always, He is making me more loving. He is helping me love others at home and wherever I go.

He brings wonderful gifts to my life–genuine love, deep peace, a sense of security, a joy that isn’t dependent on circumstances. But none of His gifts are as wonderful as He is. He is peace. He is beauty. He is life itself.

I have been reunited with the One who made me, and the reunion is marvelous.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Almighty God Is Near!
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Christ Alone

2013-04-11 Devotional No comments

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
(Psalm 63:1, NIV)

When I’m alone with my wife,
she wants my mind to be alone with her,
listening to her,
focused on her,
not a million miles away.

I’ve found that Christ is no different.
I tend to get wrapped up in my work,
even in my service to Him,
elbow-deep in the present and
dreaming into the future.
But He keeps bringing me back to himself.

He reminds me that no matter what happens or doesn’t happen in my life,
the only lasting joy I will ever have is
the joy of being in His presence in the present moment.

Jesus wants us to build our world,
not around our work,
but around Him.

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